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IS LUXURY GOING TO BE SAVED BY SOCIAL MEDIA?
At this year’s annual NRF Conference in NYC, there was an optimistic buzz that permeated throughout the event. The general vibe coming from the presentations and workshops was that of relief due to stabilization of the market, juxtaposed with cautious excitement for the changes and opportunities in retail. The NRF event statistics for this year reinforce this observation. According to Eric Olsen, Senior Director of Education Strategies for the NRF, “this year may actually be a record- breaking year for show attendance. This is even more exciting when you consider that the NRF event has been going on for 17 years.”
So what was driving the buzz? Beyond the expected showing of the latest retail product and service innovations, there were inspiring stories of success born out of innovative survival needs. Breakout topics such as “Doing more with Less” in visual merchandising, and even a talk with Bert Jacobs, Founder and creator of “Life is Good” was the type of refreshment much needed by the retail industry (if not all industries for that matter).
Speaking of refreshing change, on Tues. 1/12 there was a “Super Session” entitled The New Luxury Paradigm. This was a panel discussion with three esteemed influencers within the luxury retail market: Tory Burch, our very own, Marc Gobé, and Stephen Sadove (CEO Saks Inc.). Within twenty-four hours of this panel discussion, there have been numerous write-ups i.e., WWD, CNBC, CRM.com, not to mention tweets citing this very discussion. The key points from the various write-ups noted the following:
1) stop the culture of silos
2) create a community of clients that can help you in the R&D and research process
3) train people to overcome misunderstandings and myths about social media – its is more than just twitter or having a facebook page
4) bring technology tomake it real
The coverage was great, but thus far has been geared moreso to retail-oriented issues. Given our brand-minded communities, I wanted to capture some the more powerful brand-related mentions from this discussion:
”Brands need to love people back” - Marc Gobe, author, designer and creator of Emotional Branding cited the Coca-Cola Facebook page, as a key example of this point. The site has over 4 million visitors, and was not even created by Coca-Cola, rather two very passionate fans of the brand
“Tweeting has changed me” –citing Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh as a personal inspiration for tweeting, Marc Gobé mentioned that being active in social media changes a person’s perspective completely and makes them more thoughtful, more giving, and constantly aware of the need to share information
“Corporations do not own brands anymore – the people do” – given the universal shift towards a more interconnected world of consumer communities, brands need to be present in the conversations and take part in the dialogue – not attempt to control it. Conversations about brands will happen with, or without, a brand sponsored discussion.
“Women are integrators, they integrate everything they wear into one statement. So why is the retail merchant model not reflective of this?”-
Tory Burch mentioned that“luxury is about how you live.” Marc Gobé further mentioned that brands need to understand the consumer holistically, not in the current retail approach that drives merchants to have a more fragmented view about outfitting their consumer. A fragmented view also results in a fragmented brand experience between on-line and in-store.
“Advertising is not essential in brand-building” -Tory Burch mentioned that her brand has never advertised due to limited media budgets. This potential handicap has turned out to be a strength for her organization on that it has “forced her team to be more creative in how they get the brand message out”.
“The role of designers today” – Tory Burch’s roadshow of personal appearances reinforces the accessibility she wants her brand to represent. It is also a welcomed opportunity for her to hear and see her customers first hand. Marc Gobé cited fragrances as once being an accessible way to be closer to a designer. But noted that fragrances in particular will need to redefine their role relative to a designer brand, and the role they have in a consumer’s life today, “If I were to ask my wife what she wants for her birthday, chances are she will want something for her IPHONE or a pair of shoes rather than a fragrance. Fragrances have lost their specialness.”
For more insights on the above topics, continued dialogue or response to this posting, please feel free to contact me ahumlen@emotionalbranding.comor follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/ADHumlenwhere I am in constant search and share mode with information related to the principles of creating an emotionally engaging brand/consumer relationship.
Anneliza Humlen is President of the Emotional Branding Alliance, the consultancy division of Emotional Branding LLC. Our mission is to evangelize the need for brands to connect on an emotional level with their audiences. We help our clients leverage 2.0+ opportunities to build engaging brand/customer relationships, and cultivate socially oriented corporate cultures.
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